A Audácia é a Minha Lei

John Payne is a gambler living in a California gold mining town. Rhonda Fleming owns the local bordello. When a guy who's upset with Payne tries to kill him, Ronald Reagan steps in and saves him. An uneasy friendship forms, made more uneasy by the relationship between Payne and Reagan's fiancé Collen Gray.

I can't say I thought much of this film. There's a bizarre, cheap unreality to it that I found constantly distracting. Fleming's "bordello" located in a pretty small frontier town has utterly palatial interiors that feel like sets borrowed from a film about Louis XIV. The gambling loss that Payne and random guy argue about is said to be $12,000, which would be well over a quarter of a million dollars in today's currency. (It's not clear how anyone could casually lose that much during an evening's poker game.)

All this odd cheapness ended up amounting to a film I stopped paying much attention to. Reagan and Payne seemed to work it all out in the end.

Reagan's character is named "Cowpoke".

Nice but unexceptional Western adapted from a story by Bret Harte and script from Milton Krims and Beauchamp .Featuring Ronald Reagan as a stranger who steps into the middle of a fight between gamblers and ends up befriending one : John Payne . The latter is a card player who gets turned around by Reagan . Along the way , Payne romances Elizabeth Farnham : Rhonda Fleming who is keeper of a peculiar boarding house called Marriage Market that is inhabited by young ladies : all able to Cook all desirous of finding decent husbands ( no others need apply). When rhe West was a shameless young Hussy !. All the guts and gusto of the West .. as it really was !

A good little drama with thrills , loves stories , emotion , crossfire and better than the title suggests . Displaying colorful cinematography by John Alton, as well as thrilling musical score by Louis Forbes . Fine acting from John Payne and Ronald Reagan , in fact , this is one of Payne's best characters . While Ronald Reagan is pretty well as the cowboy who intervenes in an argument and becomes Payne's pal . Both of whom well accompanied by two gorgeous girls : Rhonda Fleming and Coleen Gray . Along with a notorious plethora of secondaries such as : Anthony Caruso , Morris Ankrum, Leo Gordon , Fred Aldrich , uncredited Angie Dickinson and Chubby Johnson . It results in an agreeable buddy movie in which two friends develp a kind , likeable friendship .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Allan Dwan . He was a prolific filmmaker who made all kinds of genres , directing acceptable films , outstanding the following ones : "Three Musketeers" , "The Iron Mask" , "Heidi" , "Sands of Iwo Jima" , "Pearl of South Pacific" , "Brewster's Millions" , "Enchanted Island" , "Gorila" , "Escape to Burma" and the Westerns : "Cattle Queen Montana" , "Passion", "Montana Belle" , "The Restless Breed" , and "Tennesse's Partner" . Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable Western.

"Tennessee's Partner" has a considerably different plot and variety of characters than a typical Western film. I don't recall having seen it as a youngster in the theater, or ever seeing it on late night TV movie broadcasts. It has a good cast of actors for the day. John Payne ("Miracle on 34th Street") had top billing with Ronald Reagan and Rhonda Fleming in major roles and a cast of well-known supporting actors of the day - Anthony Caruso, Morris Ankrum, Leo Gordon and Coleen Gray.

The story is set in the gold rush foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in northern California. But the plot varies from the usual frontier town with bawdy bars and wild goings on. The area already has taken on a start of respectability, even with the ladies' establishment with its hostesses, drinks and fine eats, as well as gambling tables. Indeed, one wonders how many places in those days had poker games with $5,000 bets and raises.

But the film has a fair share of fighting and shooting as well. It's something of a strange film about friendship. Here are some favorite lines from the movie.

Tennessee, "I don't have any friends." Cowpoke, "Well, that's somethin' you don't know until the time comes. Then you find out."

Cowpoke, "What's wrong with women?" Tennessee, "They act like women." Cowpoke, "Now, that's one thing I've always liked about 'em."

Cowpoke, "A man can take about anything. Except being made a bigger fool than he already is."

The come on for this film was the boast that the West was like this film. I somehow do not believe that, but this is pure Hollywood at its best and its worst. Allan Dwan has a reputation among film buffs and clearly he directs well, but the plot is mainly set in a house for girls who want to get the best out of men. Rhonda Fleming looks her beautiful self and her acting is not bad either. Gamblers congregate there including John Payne who doesn't seem to like women very much in this role. His partner is someone who got him out of a dodgy situation, and that is Ronald Reagan who in my opinion cannot really act. Coleen Gray is bland as Reagan's love interest, and of course she is no good. This foursome play out the fantasy of the West and no doubt many lapped it up. A film for those who want to see glamour and a little violence and no one has a speck of dirt on them.

Alan Dwan does a good job of directing, glorious color photography by John Alton and editing by James Leicester, and a twisty script, all further buoyed up by strong acting from Payne, Reagan, Fleming, Gray and Leo Gordon as sheriff.

The friendship between the two male leads is particularly convincing.

Certainly deserves watching - and not just once! 7/10.